I would appreciate your thoughts on my planned build. I'm having real trouble with the CPU cooler (as described below).

I would like a very quiet/silent PC, energy efficient yet good at games (I know, I'm asking for the moon). The system will be used for gaming, surfing the Internet, 3D modeling (Poser, Daz 3D), and some editing of home videos. I am willing to pay extra for the silence and energy efficiency. This PC will be the main PC for our whole house. For me, I will use it for surfing the Internet, 3D modeling and editing home videos. My kids will use it for surfing the Internet and gaming. As of today, games will run from something as simple as Wizard101 to Dragon Age, Skyrim and Batman: Arkham City.

I will NOT be overclocking, and will NOT be doing an SLI or Crossfire solution. My monitor resolution is 1920x1200.

Our current machine is a 7 year old Dell that has Windows XP, a dual core Pentium D 830 processor, 2GB of RAM and a 256MB ATI Radeon x600 SE card, so this will be a VERY significantly upgraded experience. I plan on keeping this machine for at least 4 to 5 years, so I am looking for something I can upgrade a bit as we go forward, but has plenty of native power for what is coming up in the next few years.

I have done a lot of research on various components. The newest generation CPUs and GPUs provide quite a bit of power while having better energy efficiency, so I hope that I can achieve my goals. In designing my system, I plan on putting the O/S and programs (including games) on the SSD. The HDD will be for data files. My current planned parts list is as follows:

So, in addition to your general and overall comments, I have some questions:

1. I have tried to choose the case fans (Scythe for front input, Thermalright for rear output) for performance and acoustics. The Corsair 550D case has two 120mm fans in the front, and one 140mm fan in the back, so that drove my choices. Am I trying to get too cute with the case fans?

2. CPU Cooler. I'm stumped. I am not sure that either the Thermalright Silver Arrow or the Thermalright Archon will work because of clearances. Will either of the Thermalrights work for my Case (Corsair 550D)? Or are they too tall? If so, any suggestions? I am looking for a VERY quiet cooler with good thermal performance.

(i) You will need to replace the video card cooling if you are after silence. Something with (a) big fan(s) running at low speed like this (it works with the 680 so I assume the 670 is fine also but you should research to confirm):http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835426026

(ii) Do your research on the Seasonic PSU, especially if you are bothered by electrical noise.

(iii) Almost any CPU cooler should be fine as the Corsair is a full size midtower ATX case. The Silver Arrow is very wide so I can't be sure but the Archon should be fine. Check out this owner's thread as I think someone was asking the same question there about the Archon:http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1670563

To what i remember the S series werent that great in sandy bridge, i would probably invest toward the i7 3700k and keep the OC option for the future in case you need the extra power, in sandy bridge there was not that much difference at idle between similar CPUs, and since you already going over $320... i think its better spent on the 3770K.

Not much comments here, i like the 8gb modules that are not so tall, if Crucial is a brand you trust then go for it. Just as a suggestion, most of the time Asus has a tested memory in their pdfs for the mobo, so i would check if its on that list.

My HR02 can mount twin fans, already has the holes on the back (i dont own a macho but my guess its the same here), but i go with only 1 fan, the TY140 and the HR02 macho should be more than enough to cool down any cpu, unless you are OCing very heavy, the less fans you have the less noise you will end up. Btw there is a version with dual fans also in case you are interested, Thermalright HR-02 Macho with 2nd Cooling Fan and Fanclips

This is one of the few 7200rpm drives that SPCR has given editor choice, so go for it, but i would go with the SOLO II and suspend the 7200rpm hdd. If its pure storage, i would consider a less noisy drive like Hitachi 5k3000 (reviewed in spcr), i own 8 atm on my server, no regrets really nice hdds. Another option are Western Digital Green Cavair, still the reference today in quiet hdds, probably the favorites among spcr members, specially for storage. Another good one for pure storage and realativly cheap (was cheaper a year ago, but prices didnt come down as fast) is the SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive, its one of the most used hdds among cheap storage servers.

With the Solo II and the Asus Z77 mobo i would just go with Scythe Slipstream PWM 120mm Case Fan SY1225SL12LM-P, they can be drop down to 200rpm (inaudible) or ramp up to 1350 in case you need more air circulation, specially with FanXpert2 you can design your ramp up depending on the temperatures of your system.

At first glance, the GPU selected overwhelms the CPU. You won't get max frame rates because the CPU can't keep up. Games like Skyrim scale well with CPU clock. Go for the i7-3770 or 3770K. Their idle/low load power will be the same or within a couple of watts of the S version.

@Bar81,Thanks for your comments. That was a good catch with respect to the Scythe fans. Do you find the ones that you have suggested are giving you very quiet operation?

Regarding the CPU cooler, the issue with the Corsair Obsidian 550D is (according to various forum posts) that as a practical matter the cooler cannot exceed 160mm in height. Both the Silver Arrow and the Archon exceed this. So I am thinking about going with the Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU Heat Sink With 2 Noctua Fans. What are your thoughts?

My understanding is that Seagate is discontinuing their green drives. I thought about going with the Western Digital Green drives, but I've seen enough forum postings about dead WD Green drives to make me cautious. Have you had any experience with them?

@Abula,Thank you very much for your post. Do you have any more information as to why the S series CPUs were not that great in Sandy Bridge? I was going for the i7-3770S because of the 65 watts vs. 77 watts of power consumption, which I assume will lead to less heat and therefore less noise to cool it.

Good point about the FanXpert 2 in the Asus motherboard. That will probably swing me into the Asus column.

I will probably wait a couple of months before buying the components, as right now it is almost impossible to get the 670 cards, and prices are above list. I agree it is better to wait to see what comes out with custom coolers.

I had considered the Thermalright HR-02 Macho cooler, but it exceeds the height limit for coolers for the Corsair Obsidian 550D.

Though at this point, I have to ask, are you dead set on that case? Because it seems to be greatly limiting your CPU cooler selection. There are a number of other cases at that same price that will free you to use any cooler you want. Like the Antec P280 for $20 less, or the Antec Sonata mentioned above for $40 less.

Having built computers and worked in IT for 12+ years, I've come to the realization that all hard drives fail, some are just less reliable than others, and some batches are worse than others. Unless you're seeing a lot of negative user reviews on Newegg (1-2 eggs, maybe even 3 eggs) I wouldn't worry about it.

At stock speeds, all Ivy Bridge chips are going to run cool and power efficient. With the 3770K chip, you have the option of overclocking it easily, and it will still run cool, quiet, and efficient up until 4.2GHz or so. With the 3770S chip, you're basically stuck at stock speeds. I strongly recommend getting the K chip.

@Bar81,Thanks for your comments. That was a good catch with respect to the Scythe fans. Do you find the ones that you have suggested are giving you very quiet operation?

Regarding the CPU cooler, the issue with the Corsair Obsidian 550D is (according to various forum posts) that as a practical matter the cooler cannot exceed 160mm in height. Both the Silver Arrow and the Archon exceed this. So I am thinking about going with the Noctua NH-U12P SE2 CPU Heat Sink With 2 Noctua Fans. What are your thoughts?

My understanding is that Seagate is discontinuing their green drives. I thought about going with the Western Digital Green drives, but I've seen enough forum postings about dead WD Green drives to make me cautious. Have you had any experience with them?

I have them on the way so I have yet to try them but from my research they appear to be the quietest PWM fans around. If they are not quiet the only choice left is regular volt modded fans (I have some 120mm Nexus fans with fanmates that I am currently using that will go back in if it comes to that).

The Noctua NH-U12P SE2 seems to be a good choice.

I have been using two WD Green 1TB drives in a RAID 1 array for several years and am quite pleased with the acoustics and the performance is fine.

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